Ever notice that as soon as you learn something really great, have new insight in the Spirit, somehow it gets crowded out?  When I learn something in academia, then I can book it, use it, and it becomes a trusted tool in my full toolbox; it seems that I assume everyone knows it; I can put it in a paper or argument and I am viola, immediately a stronger academic. But not so in the Christian spiritual walk.

I am so delighted when I get a new insight. The Spirit has quickened something, whether I’ve seen it in the Word or I have heard someone preach something new. It is so delicious, and no longer so terribly rare. Glory to God, we are so rich in the Word today, when we have great preachers available 24/7 via internet, recording, and broadcast.

But in the Spirit, after having understood something, somehow within a week or so, there is a great attack. Either the understanding itself is attacked.  Or there is an onslaught of too many things to do and think about. It is an attack from one side or the other.

Well, yes, Jesus said Satan would come immediately to take away the Word (Mark 4:13).  Now we also know that this parable is a key to understanding the rest of what Jesus taught (Mark4:13 NIV).

So unlike mental learning in school, learning AND GROWING in God is not only mental. We don’t HAVE the territory when we just see it.  We have to fight to keep it.  Good soil embraces the seed deeply, wards off the crows,  and warmly grows that seed until it sprouts and grows.  Even when it is a great plant, there needs to be watering, weeding, and care for it. Then there is great fruit.  Spiritual life is more like a garden than like academic study. It is a more wholistic thing — not just mental.

We’ve been talking about “believe the Love”  and “love never fails.”  Perhaps you were tested in this understanding over the Christmas holidays.  Remember these are holydays. Don’t let the enemy, the rebellious angel, pollute the holy days for you. Don’t look at your family member, you vendor, your whoever to fight them. Fight, instead, to keep the Word of His Love be stolen from you.  Then we shall have the territory of the Promised Land in possession.

And confession of an eternal promise is possession.